The Faculty for Social Wellbeing: Position on ESPAD

In a statement issued by the Faculty for Social Wellbeing, the Faculty states:

We commend the work done by Agency SEDQA in once again listing out the data for ESPAD.

The European School Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD) features evidence on students’ experience of, and perceptions about, a number of substances including: tobacco, alcohol, illicit drugs, inhalants, pharmaceuticals and new psychoactive substances (NPS).

Malta has participated in ESPAD since the mid 1990’s.

It is important to state that every young person has the right to maximize one’s full potential. To understand this, collating evidence on the health behaviours of young people is of great importance.

The life-stage of adolescence and youth has been variably described as the best of times and the worst of times. Youth is certainly an exciting period; young people are in active moratorium, finding their place in the world and exploring identities. Physically and cognitively they are at or are rapidly approaching their peak. Yet this period of exploration or experimentation may also present a number of risks for young people. The increased opportunities in the life world of young people in the 21st Century also entails that they must learn to negotiate a number of risks.

The 2015 study collected valid data from 3,600 students, the majority of whom were born in 1999. Whilst we maintain that there are a number of issues that remain a serious concern, we also interpret these findings as a celebration of the effective and hard work of various NGOs, State Agencies, awareness campaigns and work of enforcement entities all leaving the desired impact, at least in terms of the population being studied.

Some encouraging outcomes:

Tobacco use among Maltese young people aged 16 has since 2011 registered a significant decline, as has the use of alcohol

Lifetime use of alcohol, heavy episodic drinking and drunkenness have all declined. This is a very positive indicator, attributable to a number of actions on the part of the State and NGOs, including school prevention efforts as well as environmental prevention such as restricting the availability of such substances and pricing

Certainly the decreases registered for alcohol and tobacco are to be celebrated. These two substances are responsible for a large proportion of the burden of disease in the western world and this augurs well for a healthy future generation.

Still one must not become complacent and continue to address the excessive consumption of these substances on the Maltese islands.

We advocate for the following:

The excessive use of alcohol by underage children in Malta remains one of grave concern and requires the immediate consideration of government policy. Stricter controls on preventing access of alcohol to young people who are below the drinking age are in order;

Since the last survey in 2011, the use of cannabis by 16 years olds registered a slight increase. This indicates changing attitudes towards this substance and the cultural accommodation of the illicit in youth culture, potentially influenced by changes in legislation.

The 2015 ESPAD report also saw the inclusion of questions on new psychoactive substances or legal highs as well as excessive Internet use and online gaming and gambling. The data from ESPAD on the latter show that some young people may be experiencing difficulties in relation to their Internet use. This corroborates a previous study by the Centre for Freedom from Addiction, President’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society which found that nearly 1% of young people aged 18 to 30 may be classified as problem internet users and that 33% showed excessive use. The same Centre is planning for a study on school age (13 to 16) children to explore their difficulties with online entertainment.

This report shows how concerted efforts may reduce risk behaviour among young people and alerts us to the continued vigilance that is in order. The Faculty for Social Wellbeing through research and teaching remains committed to training over 1,000 students placed in 9 different departments, into becoming effective collaborators in the wellbeing of young people.